New Exchange Club determined to serve Hampton

For an organization that's not quite six months old, the Downtown Hampton Exchange Club has been mighty busy.

The new community service group already has tackled a broad range of projects, including feeding meals to the homeless, running a water station at the Crawlin Crab half-marathon, passing out 1,500 American flags at the city's annual Holly Days Parade, serving hot chocolate at the Downtown Hampton Lighted Boat Parade and collecting diapers, clothes and toys for kids over the holidays.

Their overall focus, however, isn't broad. It's narrow: improving life in the city's downtown.

"All of us just care a lot about the city, and we want to do good things," says Katherine K. Glass, the club's inaugural president and also Clerk of Council for the city. "We want to serve. We've jumped in to set up a framework now so that years down the road, hopefully people will be saying, 'Wow, look at all the things that our downtown club does!'"

The club is Hampton's eighth chapter of the National Exchange Club, a service organization with more than 700 clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Founded in 1911 by a group of business leaders in Detroit, the clubs aim to bring people together to "exchange" ideas for making their community better. Its four focus areas are "Americanism" – projects that promote patriotism – youth programs, community service and child abuse prevention.

Hampton actually has more exchange clubs than any other city in the country, according to Chuck Elinsky, president of the National Exchange Club's Colonial District, which covers the state of Virginia and parts of Maryland and Delaware. The downtown chapter joins a list that includes a middle school club and a special needs chapter run through the Sarah Bonwell Hudgins Center.

"It's nice to see people who spend a lot of time downtown want to make sure it's taken care of," Elinsky says. "We want to make it the best area we can."

Chartered in August, the Downtown Exchange Club launched with about 50 members, mainly a mix of business owners, nonprofit representatives and people who work in or for the city. Not as full of retired volunteers as many clubs, the downtown group is heavy on members who have built careers or enjoyed leisure time in the downtown area and want to give back.

Treasurer Michele Benson, food sourcing manager of the Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula, was born and raised in Hampton and has lived downtown since 1998. Benson also remembers visiting her grandmother at her downtown condominium as a child.

"It's absolutely beautiful," she says. "It has so much to offer. It's a great place to spend a day or evening, or just to go for a walk." So far, Benson has helped man a parking lot at Hampton Bay Days and served hot chocolate with whipped cream at the Lighted Boat Parade. "I want to do everything I can to promote and support it – to bring people here, keep it clean and help with events," she says.

Lani Davis, a board member and owner of the Old Hampton Ice Cream Parlor on East Queens Way, also likes the club's concentration on one area of the city.

"So many other community service efforts contribute to something nationwide, and that's great, but I want to help Hampton," says Davis, who opened her parlor in 2011. "Obviously, anything that helps the downtown Hampton area will help my business and other businesses here. This is a young club with a lot of energy, and we're looking forward to really growing."

Glass was part of a group that walked along the Holly Days parade route on Dec. 8, pulling a red wagon decorated with streamers and filled with free flags for children. "It was amazing to watch their little faces light up when they started waving those flags," she remembers. "We ran out of flags. We could easily have given away 500 more. I'm sure that will be something we do every year."

The club again reached out to young people when members served cookies and punch after a Dec. 13 holiday program at the Downtown Hampton Child Development Center, which offers preschool programs for families of all backgrounds and income levels. "We wanted to send a message to those kids that the whole community loves them – not just the people who have to love them," Glass says.

The club, which meets two mornings a month at the Grey Goose restaurant on West Queens Way, is now collecting non-perishable items for the Foodbank and plans to gather school supplies for Hampton schools by the end of the summer.

Members are discussing fundraising opportunities and possible partnerships with businesses, local nonprofits and museums. They also have plenty of ideas for possible future events, such as Glass' notion of a type of restaurant week for the homeless, with one restaurant and one city exchange club hosting a night of free food and service.

"I think a lot of people and business owners, especially small business owners, want to help and serve but aren't sure how to go about it," she says. "There are a lot of little things that everyone could do – and those can add up to really big things."

Alison Johnson is a freelance writer based in York County.

Want to join the Downtown Hampton Exchange Club?

To learn more about the Downtown Hampton Exchange Club, call Membership Chair Dana Epstein at 218-9575 or President Katherine Glass at 814-1076, or visit the group's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/DowntownHamptonExchange.